Hi there, I am having an issue trying to connect Ping1D to my computer using Ping Viewer.

Ping Viewer does not detect Ping1D automatically. When connecting manually Ping Viewer shows that device is available and connected, but nothing happens really (no pings are emitted; when trying to set speed of sound software just resets it to 0).

I am using revision 1 of this usb to RS485 UART serial converter:farnell.com

When connecting manually to the USB port through Ping Viewer, indicator lights on the converter start blinking, which must mean that data is being transmitted, but no activity on the monitor can be seen.

I also tried switching Tx and Rx wires. Behaviour is same on both OS X and Windows machines.

Then I decided to try and flash new firmware manually through Ping Viewer. So once again I connected manually Ping1D to the Ping Viewer, chose downloaded .hex file and tried to make Firmware Update. First time an “unknown error” occurred. Second time there was another error “Link is not open to do the flash procedure”.

So, 5V and GND connections are fine, I tried switching Tx and Rx wires, I tried to use another FTDI RS485 UART serial converter in case the first one was the problem, manual firmware update has failed for unknown reason. It seems like the board itself is not being recognised at all.

If the LED is blinking you should be fine, have you tried different serial-usb adapters ?
The recovery guideline is to recover problems related to firmware side, if the led is blinking, the firmware is running and fine, no recovery is necessary.